Episode 24 : First Trip In : an interview with Mary Erickson [transcript]

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:29:15 Debbie Lee: Welcome to the Subway Bitterroot Wilderness History Project, which is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The University of Idaho, and Washington State University. Part of the project’s mission is to collect, preserve, and make public oral histories documenting the history and people of the Solway Bitterroot Wilderness. For more information, please visit our website at SPW lib argue Idaho edu.

00:00:29:17 - 00:00:43:22 Debbie Lee: And then I think people, I think people get so much out of being in a wilderness setting. Once you take away cars and money and telephones, people are different and they.

00:00:43:24 - 00:00:44:23 Mary Erickson: Are.

00:00:44:25 - 00:01:25:19 Debbie Lee: Different to each other, I think. And, and, and then they draw on things in themselves that maybe are a little rusty from our crazy life out here. Now, I think the ways that people get along when they’re isolated in a place like that, that they place that they want to be, are really it’s a wonderful thing.

00:01:25:21 - 00:01:48:15 Debbie Lee: Thank you for joining us for the 24th episode of the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness History Project. In this episode, titled First Trip in Memory, Erickson talks about falling in love with a wilderness area she hardly knew existed. Mary Erickson grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, but fell in love with the wilderness when she visited her brother at the University of Montana.

00:01:48:17 - 00:02:10:02 Debbie Lee: A trip into the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness turned into seven years employment at Solway Lodge and North Star Ranch. Here, Mary talks about the first time she flew to Selway Lodge and the magical way that the wilderness captured her heart. Her love for the area even earned her the nickname Selway Mary, a moniker that still follows her to this day.

00:02:10:05 - 00:02:20:27 Debbie Lee: So, Mary, what I want to ask you first is if you can tell me about your background, where you grew up and, and just any details that might be relevant to your later.

00:02:20:27 - 00:02:53:12 Mary Erickson: Experience in the, survey, Bitterroot wilderness? Well, I grew up in Wisconsin on, essentially a truck farm and, went to school there, went to school in Wisconsin, a couple different colleges, and, I think part of my growing up years. Created the interest that I had in the wilderness area. And the reason it was the reason I jumped at the job when I got one.

00:02:53:15 - 00:03:15:10 Mary Erickson: because as kids growing up, we had free run of probably five miles of countryside around our farm on lake shore and woods and marshland and things of that sort. And mom, God bless her most of the time, didn’t know where we were if we weren’t doing our designated jobs. But, you know, she just felt pretty confident that we were safe wherever we were.

00:03:15:12 - 00:03:39:20 Mary Erickson: So I was used to being kind of independent in my explorations in nature. So and then I went to college in Wisconsin, and my brother had come to the University of Montana to go to school. He transferred out here, and I had to come visit him. And, once I got here, I knew I couldn’t go home because it just was where I belonged.

00:03:39:22 - 00:03:58:14 Mary Erickson: And I was lucky enough to get, There’s an ad in the paper for Selway Lodge. I didn’t say Solway Lodge. It said Backcountry Guest Ranch. Looking for assistant cook. And I thought, what the heck, I can cook. Been cooking for a family of nine. I’d done some commercial cooking. Think you know, what the heck, I’ll send him a resume.

00:03:58:14 - 00:04:23:01 Mary Erickson: And in those days, you wrote a letter and you put it in the mail, and you waited, you know, two weeks or whatever to get it back. Well, I didn’t know that their mail was at that time going to Derby, and they had flown out and picked it up. My girlfriend and I went to Glacier Park for 4 or 5 days, and when I got back, I had a note back from them.

00:04:23:04 - 00:04:43:26 Mary Erickson: It was Pearson’s. That’s how I lodge that. They were going to be interviewing in Missoula the following week. I had only planned to stay here like, well, two weeks. But you know, till the money ran out and, I called the phone number that they had left. They actually were out in town at the time, and I spoke to Mr. Pierce on the phone.

00:04:43:27 - 00:05:07:08 Mary Erickson: I said, well, how will I know you? when I get to the airport for the interviews? And he told me, well, you’d be flying in and a little yellow and white plane. And he always wore this red and white polka dot baseball cap. Well, that won’t be hard to find. So we agreed upon a time to meet at the at the airport, and I’m thinking, wow, like he has a plane.

00:05:07:08 - 00:05:27:19 Mary Erickson: Where is this ranch? I didn’t really care, though. You know, it’s all adventure. And when I got to the airport, the designated day I went, the airport was a lot different than it is now. I went right to the windows. It looked out over the tarmac and I just watched, and I saw this little plane land and taxi, and I saw him get out, come walking in.

00:05:27:19 - 00:05:46:00 Mary Erickson: So I met him at the door and introduced myself and, and we had a real great interview. And when I walked out, I, my brother had dropped me off. And when he picked me up, he said, I got that job. I didn’t know yet, but I said, I got that job. I got to go get some hiking boots because it’s in the wilderness area.

00:05:46:02 - 00:06:05:02 Mary Erickson: And you know, oh, no, we’re I’ve never I mean, yes, in Wisconsin you have like, pork on Mars and, you know, you have some wild country, but not like out here. And so, I went and bought gear, I got sleeping bag and, you know, whatever I thought I needed. And they called later in the day and said, I had the job.

00:06:05:04 - 00:06:18:15 Mary Erickson: And so two days later, I flew into the subway, and that was, wow, the beginning of all of it. What year was 1971 and how old were you then? 21. Wow.

00:06:18:17 - 00:06:23:21 Debbie Lee: So that your very first introduction was, did you fly in on the airfield at Solway Launch?

00:06:23:22 - 00:06:29:04 Mary Erickson: Oh yes I did, yeah. So, oh yes I did. That was an adventure too.

00:06:29:06 - 00:06:31:03 Debbie Lee: So tell us about your first okay.

00:06:31:03 - 00:06:51:10 Mary Erickson: Oh yeah. Few days. I have never been on a plane. Any kind of plane ever to that point in time. Okay. He tells me. Yes. I saw the little plane get, like, four people could sit on it. Okay, he’s gonna pick me up in two days, meet him at the airport, shoves my stuff in the back of the plane.

00:06:51:11 - 00:07:08:17 Mary Erickson: Get in the plane, he said. Well, there’s a little rain in this morning, so I wasn’t sure I was going to get out, but I got out to a hole in the clouds and the weather was looking really good. So we had back in. I’ve never been in a plane before. I’m sitting up with the pilot and we flew down the Bitterroot.

00:07:08:20 - 00:07:35:13 Mary Erickson: He picked me up here in Missoula and we flew down the Bitterroot and up over, Lost Horse and down Bear Creek on the on the far side, which, of course, I didn’t know. Then. And as we’re flying along, first, he lights up this little cigar. Okay, that’s not so good. But then I was in thrall. Was seeing all this incredible country below me in all these little pocket lakes up in the mountain valleys and, oh, my gosh, just incredible country.

00:07:35:13 - 00:08:09:19 Mary Erickson: Until he started pointing out his emergency landing area where it is. Crash zone. See that little grove of aspens down there? If I ever have to put it down in this canyon. That’s what I’m heading for. Okay, good, good. I’m really. And we finally get down the canyon to the Selway River, and we flew over the ranch and tipped the wings so I could see the ranch house down below to let people there know that we were coming in, make sure the horses weren’t on the airstrip, something I would be doing a lot in my later days.

00:08:09:19 - 00:08:29:06 Mary Erickson: That’s how I was clearing the airstrip for planes. But, so we circled the strip and we went back to the mouth of Bear Creek, and the plane turned around. And as we’re coming down the river canyon, there’s a mountain coming right at us, or we’re going at it as a ridge that comes down and everything. It’s okay, we’re going to pop over this.

00:08:29:13 - 00:08:51:19 Mary Erickson: So pop up over this little ridge, and he sets it down hard in the end of the field. And we’re zooming down the dirt runway, which is just part of the pasture. No horses zooming down the runway. And we’re getting closer and closer to the house. And there’s a rail fence along the house and all the families out to greet the plane, and they’re all waving as we come in.

00:08:51:19 - 00:09:17:06 Mary Erickson: They’re all waving to me and smiling big hellos on their face. And we’re still going. And as we go by the fence, by the house, their faces all changed to looks of magic, horror and big O’s for their mouths. And I said to Everett, is everything okay? He said, well, the brakes are working too good, cause the grass is wet and there’s a mountain coming.

00:09:17:08 - 00:09:35:28 Mary Erickson: Right at the end of the airstrip is a mountain. Everett says. We’re going to take the dogleg. Okay? And this little beep are going, beep beep beep beep beep. So don’t worry about that. We didn’t hit the mountain. He kind of pulled the plane to the left and went around the edge of the mountain. And there was another little piece of the meadow.

00:09:35:28 - 00:09:52:12 Mary Erickson: And that’s where we stopped the plane and turned around and taxied back down to the house. And everybody’s like, oh my God, I don’t have a dog. Nobody’s ever used a dog like before. I’m sick. I was as happy to see them as they were to see me.

00:09:52:15 - 00:09:54:19 Debbie Lee: How many people were in their family?

00:09:54:23 - 00:10:22:09 Mary Erickson: And well, at the lodge at that time there was Fred and Eric and Tom and Melanie and, Fred. And then there were a couple other staff members there, and that was our tradition that I learned. I mean, whenever a plane was coming in, you went to the to the fence and, you know, waited for them because usually you stop just passed the house by the little barn, not clear up around the right.

00:10:22:15 - 00:10:22:24 Debbie Lee: Yeah.

00:10:22:27 - 00:10:24:29 Mary Erickson: Edge of the mountain on the dogleg.

00:10:25:01 - 00:10:31:14 Debbie Lee: So you’re first. How you know, you were just immediately immersed in this, this culture back.

00:10:31:14 - 00:10:34:01 Mary Erickson: Here? Oh, yeah.

00:10:34:04 - 00:10:35:10 Debbie Lee: Oh. So what was that like?

00:10:35:14 - 00:10:44:24 Mary Erickson: It was incredible. It’s like I died going to heaven. And, you know, it was just. I mean, it was such a beautiful place.

00:10:44:26 - 00:11:08:14 Debbie Lee: Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness History Project, which has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the University of Idaho, and Washington State University. The project coordinator is Debbie Lee, recorded and produced by Aaron Jepson.